16. What is the Attention Economy? And why does it matter to companies?
Drawing on the work of the growing ‘counter attention economy army’ (Tim Wu, Cal Newport, Tristan Harris, amongst others), this clip gives a potted history of an industry founded upon a rush to extract the highest number of daily eyeball minutes from us whilst turning us into passive products (no matter what mission statements claim). In other words, here, Dr Emma Pauncefort surveys the business model underpinning household names whilst giving us a stark reminder that – to cite Newport – ‘technology is not neutral’ (2019). Instead, unless we take preventative measure, it can control our time and, even more nefariously, shape what we believe and do.
More videos from Module 3:
